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Transmitter alignment

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Jeff Kinzli

Transmitter alignment

So, I'm finally getting to the transmitter alignment section on K2 #5945.

With a dummy load, I set power on 40M to 2W, and go into tune mode. I can never get more than about 0.4W on the K2 display, and my wattmeter barely moves, which would jive with that also. Moving L1/L2 through their full range has no effect, the power fluctuates between 0.2 and 0.4W regardless. It's the same on all bands.

Current draw is about 0.75A in tune mode.

I had previously aligned the receiver, and the reciever was listening nicely on 40M.

Going through the troubleshooting section, I can't find any problems with the suggested troubleshooting points.

One thing that struck me as wierd, is that the two 1% resistors that Troubleshooting refers to (1.5k and 226 ohm), I think R66/67 (?) both read 195 ohms, but they are the correct color code and I confirmed that I checked them before installing. It appears strange to me because the other resistors read correctly while installed, but these do not. So, perhaps this is my problem?

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jeff
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Jeff Kinzli

Re: Transmitter alignment

Oh, and I have checked, and C167 is indeed installed. :)

On Wed, Jan 31, 2007 at 11:45:54PM -0500, Jeff Kinzli wrote:

> So, I'm finally getting to the transmitter alignment section on K2 #5945.
>
> With a dummy load, I set power on 40M to 2W, and go into tune mode. I can never get more than about 0.4W on the K2 display, and my wattmeter barely moves, which would jive with that also. Moving L1/L2 through their full range has no effect, the power fluctuates between 0.2 and 0.4W regardless. It's the same on all bands.
>
> Current draw is about 0.75A in tune mode.
>
> I had previously aligned the receiver, and the reciever was listening nicely on 40M.
>
> Going through the troubleshooting section, I can't find any problems with the suggested troubleshooting points.
>
> One thing that struck me as wierd, is that the two 1% resistors that Troubleshooting refers to (1.5k and 226 ohm), I think R66/67 (?) both read 195 ohms, but they are the correct color code and I confirmed that I checked them before installing. It appears strange to me because the other resistors read correctly while installed, but these do not. So, perhaps this is my problem?
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff

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Jeff Kinzli

Re: Transmitter alignment

Alright, a little bit of an update on my problem...

Gary at Elecraft gave me a list of voltages to check upon TX.

Unfortunately, my scope is old and I couldn't get it to play fair, so the only thing I could really measure were DC voltages with my VOM. I'll probably go ahead and start putting the RF probe together sine my scope seems tired.

Anyhow,

I checked R50, it's right on, good, not open.
I checked D7, it has 7.95VDC on it's anode and 7.32VDC on it's cathode.
I checked Q6, and it has 1.0VDC on it's base
I checked Q6, and it has 12.2V on it's collector (at TX)

R67 and R68 continue to bother me, they both read 195 ohms, even when measuring
directly across them. I don't see why that would be given the schematic,
but they are the correct color code for the given resistors, and when I measure
I have nothing connected to the antenna jack.

I have a sneaking suspicion it's a problem with a toroid lead, but I have checked and rechecked them all, measuring continuity across windings at the solder pads.

Do any of you guys offer troubleshooting service, in person? :)

Thanks for any ideas,

Jeff

On Wed, Jan 31, 2007 at 11:58:28PM -0500, Jeff Kinzli wrote:

> Oh, and I have checked, and C167 is indeed installed. :)
>
> On Wed, Jan 31, 2007 at 11:45:54PM -0500, Jeff Kinzli wrote:
> > So, I'm finally getting to the transmitter alignment section on K2 #5945.
> >
> > With a dummy load, I set power on 40M to 2W, and go into tune mode. I can never get more than about 0.4W on the K2 display, and my wattmeter barely moves, which would jive with that also. Moving L1/L2 through their full range has no effect, the power fluctuates between 0.2 and 0.4W regardless. It's the same on all bands.
> >
> > Current draw is about 0.75A in tune mode.
> >
> > I had previously aligned the receiver, and the reciever was listening nicely on 40M.
> >
> > Going through the troubleshooting section, I can't find any problems with the suggested troubleshooting points.
> >
> > One thing that struck me as wierd, is that the two 1% resistors that Troubleshooting refers to (1.5k and 226 ohm), I think R66/67 (?) both read 195 ohms, but they are the correct color code and I confirmed that I checked them before installing. It appears strange to me because the other resistors read correctly while installed, but these do not. So, perhaps this is my problem?
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jeff

Jeff Kinzli

Re: Transmitter alignment

A little more info...

Charles, N3EJS, was nice enough to point out to me that my strange resistor
values of R67 and R68 sounded like they were in parallel, and had a hunch that
pin 7 of the relays was probably shorting to ground.

Checking this, and Charles was right on the money (thanks, Charles!).

Now, the question of why the relays pin 7 was directly connecting to ground?

I reset the relays by pulling the control board, powered up, and then put
things back to normal. On "normal" power up (with the control board back in
place) things looked good, no short on pin 7 to ground.

However, as soon as I engage "TUNE" again, the short to ground returns.

So, it seems as if I have a problem in the relay logic. Essentially
the antenna jack is shorting, so I have a dead short across the output, it
seems.

Any thoughts on how to get the relay logic figured out?

Thanks again,

Jeff

On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 09:20:27PM -0500, Jeff Kinzli wrote:

> Alright, a little bit of an update on my problem...
>
> Gary at Elecraft gave me a list of voltages to check upon TX.
>
> Unfortunately, my scope is old and I couldn't get it to play fair, so the only thing I could really measure were DC voltages with my VOM. I'll probably go ahead and start putting the RF probe together sine my scope seems tired.
>
> Anyhow,
>
> I checked R50, it's right on, good, not open.
> I checked D7, it has 7.95VDC on it's anode and 7.32VDC on it's cathode.
> I checked Q6, and it has 1.0VDC on it's base
> I checked Q6, and it has 12.2V on it's collector (at TX)
>
> R67 and R68 continue to bother me, they both read 195 ohms, even when measuring
> directly across them. I don't see why that would be given the schematic,
> but they are the correct color code for the given resistors, and when I measure
> I have nothing connected to the antenna jack.
>
> I have a sneaking suspicion it's a problem with a toroid lead, but I have checked and rechecked them all, measuring continuity across windings at the solder pads.
>
> Do any of you guys offer troubleshooting service, in person? :)
>
> Thanks for any ideas,
>
> Jeff
>
> On Wed, Jan 31, 2007 at 11:58:28PM -0500, Jeff Kinzli wrote:
> > Oh, and I have checked, and C167 is indeed installed. :)
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 31, 2007 at 11:45:54PM -0500, Jeff Kinzli wrote:
> > > So, I'm finally getting to the transmitter alignment section on K2 #5945.
> > >
> > > With a dummy load, I set power on 40M to 2W, and go into tune mode. I can never get more than about 0.4W on the K2 display, and my wattmeter barely moves, which would jive with that also. Moving L1/L2 through their full range has no effect, the power fluctuates between 0.2 and 0.4W regardless. It's the same on all bands.
> > >
> > > Current draw is about 0.75A in tune mode.
> > >
> > > I had previously aligned the receiver, and the reciever was listening nicely on 40M.
> > >
> > > Going through the troubleshooting section, I can't find any problems with the suggested troubleshooting points.
> > >
> > > One thing that struck me as wierd, is that the two 1% resistors that Troubleshooting refers to (1.5k and 226 ohm), I think R66/67 (?) both read 195 ohms, but they are the correct color code and I confirmed that I checked them before installing. It appears strange to me because the other resistors read correctly while installed, but these do not. So, perhaps this is my problem?
> > >
> > > Any ideas?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Jeff

Don Wilhelm-3

RE: Re: Transmitter alignment

Jeff,

You may be chasing a 'ghost' - in other words, that 'short' to ground may be
present at DC but not at RF.
Remember that the relays latch, and the armature will be connected to pin 7
for the band that has last been selected. Going further on that vein the
relays shown on the left of the LPF will also have continuity from pin 3 to
4 for the last selected band.
What all that means is that the DC resistance will be close to zero from R67
through the LPF coils and relay contacts and then through the output winding
of T4 (which has the #4 lead grounded). So at DC, the resistance will be
close to zero through that path - at RF, the reactance comes into play and
will not be zero ohms impedance. For DC resistance measurements, R67 and
R68 are effectively in parallel.

So, bottom line, look for your problem elsewhere. I suggest that you build
the RF probe if you have not done so already and go through the steps
outlined in the Transmitter Signal Tracing section of Appendix A in the
manual. That should identify the stage at fault. Once we know which stage
is at fault we should be able to easily localize the failure to the
component level.

The most likely cause of failure is a soldering problem, so check the
soldering carefully (several times). Unsoldered connections can be elusive,
but they are the major cause of failure.

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
> A little more info...
>
> Charles, N3EJS, was nice enough to point out to me that my
> strange resistor
> values of R67 and R68 sounded like they were in parallel, and had
> a hunch that
> pin 7 of the relays was probably shorting to ground.
>
> Checking this, and Charles was right on the money (thanks, Charles!).
>
> Now, the question of why the relays pin 7 was directly connecting
> to ground?
>
> I reset the relays by pulling the control board, powered up, and then put
> things back to normal. On "normal" power up (with the control
> board back in
> place) things looked good, no short on pin 7 to ground.
>
> However, as soon as I engage "TUNE" again, the short to ground returns.
>
> So, it seems as if I have a problem in the relay logic. Essentially
> the antenna jack is shorting, so I have a dead short across the
> output, it
> seems.
>
> Any thoughts on how to get the relay logic figured out?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Jeff
>
> On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 09:20:27PM -0500, Jeff Kinzli wrote:
> > Alright, a little bit of an update on my problem...
> >
> > Gary at Elecraft gave me a list of voltages to check upon TX.
> >
> > Unfortunately, my scope is old and I couldn't get it to play
> fair, so the only thing I could really measure were DC voltages
> with my VOM. I'll probably go ahead and start putting the RF
> probe together sine my scope seems tired.
> >
>

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2:28 PM

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